Ghirahim, maybe. Ridley, no way. He's way too big, he flies and he shoots fire. I have no idea why people keep asking for him. In order to make Ridley balanced, you'd be taking away everything that makes Ridley himself.

This could be real. I would love those stages though especially starship mario. a new yoshi character could be boshi( anyone remember him, i do.) Gringhiam is more than likely to be playable due to his popularity and same with ridley a k rool as stated. We will know though when the nintendo direct airs if it is real and if it is then it is only a month away. Oh and i don't care about ridley's size bowser was originally twice his size so why can't they shrink him down.

Ridley has been shown to not be that much bigger than Samus Aran before, and I see no reason why that could not occur again to allow Ridley as a playable character. If Bowser can get in by being scaled down and Olimar + Pikmin by being scaled up, so can Ridley via scaling.

I believe they stated a long time ago that Ridley was too big. I doubt they've changed their minds.

The inclusion of Dillon & a Pushmo themed arena. I suppose Dillon could be a 3DS exclusive character, but I just don't think any eShop characters are big enough to be anything other than an assist trophy. The pushmo arena isn't as far fetched (they had Pictochat & an Elektroplankton arenas), but we'll have to wait & see.

Characters getting new designs from new (& in some cases, unanounced) games. Characters have always sported their appearance from the last game they starred in. I doubt that'll suddenly change.

Wonderful 101 character(s). Yeah, it's an "all stars" crossover. Would they realy risk adding characters that aren't known faces? If a Platinum character is introduced, I'd say Bayonetta (a known face) would actually be more plausible.

I agree with the people saying Ridley isn't too big to be playable and can be shrunk down. Forget what size he might be in 'canon', Smash Bros isn't in any series canon other than it's own. If Nintendo think Ridley would be a popular character in Smash Bros 4, they'll resize and add him to make people happy.

Ridley has been shown to not be that much bigger than Samus Aran before, and I see no reason why that could not occur again to allow Ridley as a playable character. If Bowser can get in by being scaled down and Olimar + Pikmin by being scaled up, so can Ridley via scaling.

That's a picture from Melee, which came out 11 years ago. Ridley is based off of his appearance in Super Metroid (the most recent Metroid game at the time) which came out 18 years ago. That's kinda outdated. That's from before Metroid Prime and Other M.
Bowser is still the biggest character in the game, so that's appropriate. The Pikmin characters are from their own universe, so it's not odd to see them normal size among the other characters. Samus and RIdley are in the same universe.
Now, I could possibly see this if the 3DS version were to really be a "Retro" version, but I'm sure that was a false rumor, too. Still, I always think about that from time to time, because it would be cool to see an old school Nintendo styled Smash Bros. game.